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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24620797">Starstruck</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaporrub/pseuds/vaporrub'>vaporrub</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Homestuck</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Celebrity Crush, High School, M/M, Mindless Fluff, popstar</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-11</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 10:28:01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>3</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,380</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24620797</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaporrub/pseuds/vaporrub</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>John Egbert at the age of 13 was obsessed with a famous pop/hip hop singer, Dave Strider. Now that John is older and in high school, he's completely over his "Strider phase" and his focus is on his studies... until a new student starts attending classes at his school.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>John Egbert/Dave Strider</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>37</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>John rested snuggly in bed, snuggling up to his pillow and sighing. John picked up the photo that he had resting on the pillow next to him. John squinted his eyes, until he could make out the dreamy blur as <em>the love of his life, </em>Dave Strider. It was John's dream to finally attend a Dave Strider concert, see him live and in person! John loved to day dream about being in the front row and when Dave got to a slow song that he'd notice John in the crowd and start singing directly to him, that Dave would grab him by the hand and pull him up on stage. The two of them slow dancing on stage and the crowd melting away. John giggled and squealed at the thought of staring into Strider's patented shades and Dave finally removing them and revealing his eyes to John.</p><p>Everyday, John would wake up to the picture of Dave resting on the pillow next to him! He'd kiss it good morning and get up to look at all of the Strider poster's on his walls. His dad got the picture early on that his son had what he called <em>a healthy obsession </em>with a pop star. John's dad would by any magazine with Dave's face on it, any poster he came across and any shirt he could find in John's size. His dad was sweet enough to get a birthday cake with Strider's face pasted onto it. John's dad just wanted to support his sons little crush to let him know he was fine with his sexuality, when John grew older he understood that's what his dad was attempting to do... all it really served to do though was to fuel his obsession.</p><p>John spent a good two-three years shaped by his fixation with some corporately propped up child-star. John became embarrassed with his infatuation sometime in middle school. He burnt all of his posters and shirts in some ritual right of passage. John finally passed his Strider phase. Eventually the craze died out. No one cared about whatever the hell Dave Strider was doing and his face faded from the public eye.</p><p>John moved on, he started focusing on school and in most of his classes he became a teacher's assistant. He took his duties as a TA seriously and kept the other students in line, some of them seemed to remember John's obsession with Dave Strider from the start of middle school. Those who remembered the dark days tried to hold it above him, the way that Dave shut them down and outright denied his love for Strider was so well done that apparently most of the other students didn't believe that John having a thing for Strider was anything to entertain.</p><p>John sighs, walking into the first class for the other students. He just got done with his zero period with math club, now he's ready for basically teaching while the teacher peaces out to check her phone in the bathrooms again.</p><p>John walks in. He glares at the whiteboard there was a variety of drawings on the board again, most of which John didn't mind so long as it wasn't obscene. Right there. Right next to his face is a giant red crudely drawn phallic symbol.</p><p>Someone drew a fucking dick on the white board again.</p><p>John shot a glare across the room and analyzed every face in front of him for any shred of guilt. John outright asks them all, "who did this?"</p><p>The room was silent and fell onto the eyes of the student in the middle of the room. That certain someone was facing away from John, digging in his bag as he's knelling on the floor. The boy turns around as he asks John, "which doodle, man?"</p><p>John felt his heart drop into his gut. There he was, with his white hair and sharp chin. A face John hadn't seen in years with a voice John hadn't let himself listen to since he battled himself to get over him...</p><p>It's Dave fucking Strider. </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Dave starts walking up to the kid by the white board. Dave keeps his hands in the pockets of his red jacket. The kid's staring at Dave through huge ass granny glasses. Dave just asked him which drawing the kid was asking about, the boy with the messy black hair pointed right at the huge dick Dave drew and damn if Dave wasn't proud. Dave don't care one bit if he's gonna get in trouble, he's proud of the work of art he just made for all to see.</p><p>Dave finished walking up to the short kid at the front of the room, Dave nudges his head towards the giant cock he drew, "I don't mean to brag, but yeah. That was me."</p><p>The boy gives Dave a small pout. Dave just felt something stab into his chest. It's something about that god damn look the boy just gave him that makes Dave feel weak.</p><p>The kid in front of him lets loose a airy laugh he shakes his head and smiles,</p><p>"well, what ever you want to draw in your free time is your business, but when you're in school, you need to adhere to the rules." He's scolding Dave, but he's using such a sweet tone that Dave's palms start to sweat.</p><p>"I'm John by the way." The boy with the messy black hair lifts up his hand for Dave to shake. Dave wipes his palms off in his sleeve. Dave turns his head away from John as he takes his hand and shakes it. "I'm... Dave."</p><p>John sighs as he nods his head, "I'm well aware."</p><p>Dave brings his eyes back up to John. <em>God fucking damn it.</em> Dave was hoping that once the Strider Mania died out that everyone would just forget that his childhood even existed, how did he expect the world would just forget, Dave's still trying to forget himself. Dave stutters out, "y-yeah?"</p><p>John slips his hand away from Dave's, he uses his hand to hide his smile as he says, "it's alright. No one should judge you for something your parent's probably forced you to do anyway."</p><p>"My bro did actually..." Dave looks off to the side as he speaks.</p><p>"Oh." John nods, "see. It wasn't even your choice, was it?"</p><p>"Yeah... but I did want to do that one movie deal. The nick one."</p><p>"Oh ho!" John laughs, "and whys that?"</p><p>"Wanted to get fucking slimed man, it's like a child stars right of passage."</p><p>John let out a loud snort and slapped his mouth shut. Right then and there, Dave felt a large sigh escape his lungs. <em>Who ever this kid is... he's dreamy. </em></p><hr/><p>When the teacher came in she told John that he was in charge and left him alone to take attendance and start the lecture. John happily stood at the front of the class and pointed at the projection as he taught algebra first thing in the morning.</p><p>Dave yawns, he was still tired from spending all night up online. He smacks his mouth together as he rests his head on one of his fists. He lets out a small sigh. John's smiling cause some kid just answered a question of his correctly. John looks so proud that he got someone to understand his lecture.</p><p>John looks so sweet as he praises the class for working along with him. <em>You'd be hard pressed to find a sweeter smile.</em></p><p>John asked the class to try to finish an equation that he just wrote onto the white board.</p><p>Dave opened up a note book and jotted down the first couple of bits of the equation. Dave found himself drawing wave after wave of hearts and then he tried to capture the likeness of John as he stood at the front of the room. John would smile and beam as he asked some students if they'd like to try to see if they got the right answer up on the board. There were some takers, but John didn't force anyone to step up to the plate. John just used the other unanswered questions as another learning tool. He'd have the entire class help him solve those.</p><p>By the time the teacher came back John clapped his hands together and asked the room to "hand in your papers!"</p><p>Dave felt his heart sink into his chest. He couldn't turn in this shit. It was just a red mess of heart scribbles and funky looking attempts at drawing John. Dave shut his notebook closed and stuffed it into his bag. Dave looked around him, he saw how everyone was passing up there sheets. Looks like there's cover for him to not turn his in without anyone noticing. He took the sheets from the people behind him and passed them up.</p><p>John looked through all of the sheets and then asked the room, "did everyone turn these in?"</p><p>John got no response. The kids were all talking and waiting for the bell for the next class to right. John sighs as he walks right up to where Dave is sitting. <em>Shit. Shit!</em></p><p>"Dave? Did you not turn in your paper?" John asks softly.</p><p>"Didn't make one. Sorry, man." Dave shrugs. "Didn't know we were supposed to. Thought it was optional."</p><p>"But... I thought I saw you writing." John tilts his head. "Weren't you following along?"</p><p>"Yeah, but I was writing something for another class."</p><p>"Didn't you just start school today?"</p><p>"Shit." Dave muttered under his breath.</p><p>"It's okay if you didn't get any of the answers right, Dave... I just wanted to make sure that you were trying. Part of the grade is just showing your work. There's no shame in getting things wrong. I know I didn't give out most of the correct answers." John frowns. "I'm just happy so long as you tried."</p><p>Dave frowns. He starts sweating. Dave wants so badly to confess that he was listening to John, but that every word turned into a pile of mush in his fucked up brain. Dave wanted nothing more than to confess that he tried, but he couldn't keep up. Instead Dave plays it cool, "dude, I'll be real." Dave leans back into his chair. "I was just drawing for most of class."</p><p>John didn't look happy at the sound of that. He turned away and let out a small scoff.</p><p>Dave felt a pain sink into his gut, maybe he shouldn't have phrased it that way.</p><p>Now John thinks Dave wasn't even trying to listen to his lecture when he was trying so hard to get everyone engaged. Maybe he should find some way to apologize...</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Just about every single class John has today, Dave's in it. Thankfully, John didn't have him for the last period of the day. He felt like calling Dave out for yawning during his lecture, he'd been doodling and yawning all freaking day! John can't believe he used to be head-over-heels for this freaking fool!</p><p>When John got home he just wanted to nap, but his dad was still out at work. Looks like John's going to be the one making dinner tonight.</p>
<hr/><p>John's dad got home later than he anticipated. He thanked John for making the meal and told him all about some wealthy business man that moved from Houston.</p><p>"Get this, his younger brother is your <em>favorite</em> singer." John's dad smiled as he dug his fork into his bustle sprout. "I asked him if he could get me an autograph for you once our meeting was over. He seemed to appreciate that people still like his brother's work."</p><p>"Dad." John lowers his eyes. "I don't like Dave any more, okay... and I know Dave lives here now... he goes to my school."</p><p>"He does!?" His dad's face lights up, "did you speak to him yet, son?"</p><p>"I did." John stabbed his steak with his fork. "And he's a jerk who can't be bothered to listen to any of my lectures-"</p><p>"Oh, son. You're still doing that?" John's dad shook his head. "I told you, you need to let the teachers teach, it's their job."</p><p>"They let me!" John lifts up his hands and sighs, "and I'm better at it! I actually care about my peers!"</p><p>"I'm sure your teachers care about the other students, and aren't they to rowdy for you to handle?"</p><p>"That's seventh period. I don't TA for that class anymore, remember?"</p><p>"Oh. Right, right." John's dad nodded. "You need to focus on your AP classes. Right."</p><p>John's dad started eating dinner again, but before he does he says, "so... tell me more about Dave."</p>
<hr/><p>John was already done the moment he walked into first period. He walked in to a bunch of girls giggling at him. He tried to find out what was so funny, he turned his head and spotted Dave Strider, standing at the white board and attempting to draw...</p><p>"Is that Slimer?" John asks as he walks up behind Dave. There is a pretty good drawing of John's favorite mascot from his favorite franchise up on the white board.</p><p>Dave jolts up. He turns his head and tries to play it cool, "yeah, man. Slimer rocks."</p><p>Dave leans against the wall as he says, "uh... you know... I feel kinda bad for making it seem like I wasn't paying attention to your lecture's man... so I uh... asked around about things you like and I thought I'd draw you something as an apology." Dave looked like he had rings under his eyes.</p><p>John tilts his head and asks, "are you getting enough sleep?"</p><p>"Eh." Dave shrugs as he leans his back against the white board. "I go to bed late. Plus, I still have jet lag from my move."</p><p>John sighs, "you should try to go to bed earlier if you have trouble sleeping."</p><p>"Doesn't help." Dave shakes his head and slips a bit against the board. "But don't worry about it, man."</p><p>"Well. Thank you for the drawing." John walks away, "even though you just erased it."</p><p>Dave turns around. He just smeared the entire doodle onto his the back of his baseball tee. As John walked away he heard Dave say, "damn it."</p><p>John reprimands him with a "language."</p>
<hr/><p>When John got into his sixth period, his teacher decided to play a video today, thankfully John didn't have to do much but sit down and watch. Only thing he's going to have to do is collect papers after the videos over.</p><p>The girls behind him are muttering something to Dave. John hears them say something about John being a <em>big fan </em>of something. That's enough for John to turn around and snap at them,</p><p>"be quiet and watch the movie."</p><p>"It's not even playing yet." One of the girls jeered John. "We were only talking about how you were a huge fan back in middle school." She turns back to Dave as she says, "he had your face on his backpack and everything."</p><p>"That's a blatant lie." John lies himself. "stop teasing Dave and get out a sheet, we all have questions on the board we need to answer.</p>
<hr/><p>John sighs. It's finally time for lunch. He usually brings something healthy from home but he couldn't make anything today. He spent most of the morning going over the lectures he'd have to do today. Maybe his dad is right, maybe he should leave some work up to his teachers... but then the other students would suffer for it. John knows that most of his teachers don't care much for teaching and don't put in any effort into making their lecture's engaging, they all hopped at the chance to have someone who knows what they are doing take over their job. They still referred to John more as a tutor or a helper, if John didn't carry all of their weight though he's sure that some of the students in his class might see their grades slip, in John's seventh period there was already some students asking John more questions than their teacher.</p><p>The teachers don't do enough to truly help their students... it's almost sad.</p><p>John sighs as he walks into the cafeteria. He's just going to grab something and take it over to the bench he usually eats on. When John sees Dave, he feels like walking the other way. Dave walks right up to John and invites him right away, "hey, man. Wanna sit with me today?" He pants a little. John saw how quickly Dave sat up and ran over to John.</p><p>John closed his eyes and sighed. He was rolling his eyes under his lids. "I always have plans eating somewhere else today, I'm sorry-"</p><p>"That's cool, can I join you?" Dave buts himself in.</p><p>John feels like saying no, like bluntly telling Dave to leave him alone, but Dave's honestly trying to build a bridge between them. Dave probably doesn't mean to yawn through all of John's lectures. He's probably just tired from jet lag. John decides to give Dave a chance.</p><p>"Go sit down, I'll join you after I grab something to eat."</p>
<hr/><p>John walks up with his tray to Dave's table. Dave's doodling something in his notebook again. John peaks his head behind Dave as he asks, "what are you drawing?"</p><p>Dave slams the notebook shut.</p><p>John lowers his eyes as he sits down besides him,</p><p>"Were you drawing something <em>not school appropriate again?"</em></p><p>"Y-yeah..." Dave nods. "Didn't want to offend you."</p><p>"Ugh." John scoffs. "It's fine if it's in your own personal note book, but if it's on school work..."</p><p>"It's not." Dave shakes his head. "It's a personal thing."</p><p>"Oh, well... would it be alright if I could see?" John asks, titling his head as he notices a few hearts sketched into the front of Dave's notebook.</p><p>"uh..." Dave shakes his head no. "I'd rather keep it to myself."</p><p>"So it's like a diary then?" John ask.</p><p>"Nah... more like uh... sketchbook?"</p><p>"Oh! I liked your slimmer drawing! You're really good." John encourages Dave by asking, "can you pick out a page you'd like me to see?"</p><p>"N-no!" Dave places his hand over his notebook.</p><p>"Oh come on... I'm not going to judge you for anything you draw, I lost my right to judge you when I bought your SKAT3ER B0Y album."</p><p>"Oh shit. You heard that?" Dave glances away from John.</p><p>"Yeah, it was your worst one for sure... but I didn't think you should have just quit after that."</p><p>"Yeah..." Dave sighs. "My bro was thinking about making me have a comeback... he's working with some guys here about re-branding my image." Dave sighs.</p><p>"Oh." John lowers his eyes, his dad must be one of those marketing people.</p><p>"I wanted to at least try going to school for a little bit again." Dave sighs. "At least I had the chance to come here... don't know how long I'm gonna stay here for though."</p><p>"You... wanted to come to school?" John didn't think Dave liked school.</p><p>"Yeah... I wanted to hang out with people my own age for once." Dave sighs. "I don't really have the chance to talk to anyone other than adults trying to like... patronize me or talk down to me."</p><p>"Oh." John looks down at his food. "Well... I'm glad we could meet then."</p><p>John looks back up at Dave. "I'm sorry if I seemed impatient with you... I just thought you weren't paying attention to my lecture and I work so hard on them... I lose sleep over it... I didn't eat all day til now cause I was busy going over the lesson plans for today."</p><p>"Oh." Dave looks up at John, "well... I guess I should confess that I was trying to listen... but my brain just operates on like 1% battery life whenever you speak to the class..."</p><p>"okay...?" John nods, he thinks he's following. "So... it's because you're jet lagged right? Or is it because you're not used to lectures?"</p><p>"Oh I'm used to learning shit... my bro home-schooled me... and you're pretty good at explaining inverse functions, I remember my bro just drilling that stuff into my head and I like figured out how to do it before I really even understood it. I bet if I would have listened to your lecture I might have actually learned something... sorry I can't like get my brain to focus, man."</p><p>"Oh... uh... Thank you." John looks down at his food again as he takes his sandwich into his hands. "I guess you really were trying if you remembered what I was talking about..."</p><p>"Yeah, man. I actually managed to write down one of the equations on the wall today too. I tried but uh-" Dave suddenly shoved his own sandwich into his face.</p><p>John lightly laughs at the sight of ketchup and mustard dripping down Dave's face as he stuffed his mouth to silence himself. He must not be used to talking to people his own age, that's okay. John doesn't mind if he's a little bit awkward.</p><p>John drags his eyes down to Dave's notebook again, John thinks to himself that maybe that's the same one he tried to write down his equation in. Suddenly, John's eyes fall down to a small heart on the book, with the words John + Dave inside of it.</p><p>John feels his heart sink. He looks back up at Dave. Dave's wiping the drippings from his sandwich off of his chin and mouth.</p><p>John starts feeling a wave of heat surge through his body.</p><p>Dave Strider... was sitting right next to him and... he... had a crush on him...</p><p>Suddenly, the 13 year old John Egbert reawakens and starts screaming in John's head. He can hear his own screams from the first time he managed to go to a Dave Strider concert back in middle school. John drops his sandwhich. He looks up at Dave</p><p>Dave is looking into John's eyes, trying to understand why John looks like he just witnessed a murder.</p><p>Dave looks down to where John's gaze was... he sees it.</p><p>Right there in blue letters against his red spiral notebook.</p><p>Dave looks up at John and turns as red as the notebook at his side.</p><p>John stutters, "I- You... uh... hahaha." John starts lightly laughing. "yOU-"</p><p>John coughs to get rid of his voice crack. Dave can see how flustered John is... Dave feels the exact same.</p><p>Dave starts laughing to. "Uh... dude... do you um... like me too?"</p><p>John couldn't bring himself to speak, he simply nodded his head several times. </p><p>"Uh... then um.." Dave's face was still flushed red, "I should confess the real reason I couldn't focus during your lectures..."</p><p>"Ca-cause YOu liKE me?" John's voice breaks as he squeaks out his words.</p><p>Dave nods.</p><p>"Hol... holy shit."</p><p>Dave lightly smiles as he says, "language."</p><p>John lightly bumps his elbow into Dave's arm. John laughs after and looks down at the table again.</p><p>Dave rubs the back of his neck as he akwardly pops the question, "so uh... we dating now or...?"</p><p>"of course." John looks back at Dave as he nods. "But um... it might take me a while to like... cool down from this."</p><p>John feels like fanning his face, so he does. "It's just um... you're... you're, you know..."</p><p>Dave asks. "Dave Strider?"</p><p>John nods.</p><p>"and I take it that... you were a fan?"</p><p>John nods again.</p><p>"And... you really did have a backpack with my face on it?"</p><p>John nods and apologizes, "I know! It's weird! I'm so sorry, I spent so much time getting over my Strider craze and then I meet you in real life and you're even more amazing of a person than I thought you were... I uh... I don't see you in the same way... if that makes sense."</p><p>"Dude," Dave nods. "Gotta be real, if they had backpacks with your face on it. I'd be first in line to buy like five."</p><p>John buries his face into his hands. Dave laughs.</p><p>John looks up at Dave and shoots him a glare. "Don't make fun of me! I'm not the one who has a whole note book filled with heart doodles!" John does nothing more than guess but...</p><p>Dave opens his mouth again, "ah-"</p><p>...Dave's response lets John know that he just rightfully called him out.</p><p>John snickers, still feeling his nerves bubble up in his chest. "Would it... be alright if I looked?"</p><p>Dave opens up his notebook to a random page, "go right ahead."</p><p>The two of them continued to eat lunch together, laughing at Dave's random doodles and his little mindless doodle hearts. John invited Dave over to his home after school, praying that his dad wasn't going to embarrass him by telling Dave stories like how one time John camped out with one of his friends and her mom in a tent to get first dibs on Dave Strider merch when it released for the holidays. John doesn't need Dave to hear all of that. The two of them are grown past Strider Mania... now John's all hot in the face because Dave is another teenage boy, a cute sweetheart with a sketchbook filled with drawings of him. John never felt so flattered, he thinks he'd fall hard and fast into a crush with any boy with a sketchbook filled with little heart doodles made just for him... but it does help that Dave is so handsome and <em>sigh super dreamy.</em></p><p>The bell rings and John can't help but plant a gentle kiss onto Dave's cheek. He slapped his mouth shut. He wasn't thinking! He for a split second felt like he shouldn't have done that... but then Dave smiles softly up at him and gives John a kiss of his own before burring his face into his elbow's sleeve.</p><p>How are the two of them ever going to be able to get any work done... John's mind is going to be riding this high all day.</p><p>The two of them part and John waves his new boyfriend goodbye. He softly sighs to himself... secretly thankful that he never tossed that photo of Dave he kept under his pillow for years...</p>
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